Praise, requests for tweaks at hearing on new Fuller Warren construction plan

Six months after crowds of neighbors complained about plans for construction around Jacksonville’s Fuller Warren Bridge, some of the same people showed up Thursday night to tell state road planners they like parts of a reworked plan a lot better.

“Y’all have made some wonderful concessions and creative ideas to help,” Riverside activist Wayne Wood told Florida Department of Transportation workers during a public meeting inside the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens.

A roadwork price tag that had dipped from $136 million to $70 million was back up around $128 million when the new plan was presented Thursday to about 150 people, only a fraction of whom stayed for a formal presentation and public comment period hours after an open house started.

Maybe more important than the fluctuating price was the great change in the nature of the work, which project manager Jim Knight told an audience is meant help the Fuller Warren to handle traffic smoother while the number of cars using the bridge rises from about 250,000 now to near 300,000 in 25 years.

The center of a lot of attention was a bike and pedestrian path designed to run from a switchback ramp starting west of Riverside Avenue and connect to the bridge’s south side, then split off near the Southbank, pass under the bridge and intersect with Palm Avenue.

State officials had said a lane for bikes was impossible, so seeing the new 12-foot-wide “shared use path” was gratifying, said Mark Atkins, president of the North Florida Bicycle Club. But Atkins and others said there were still details to be worked out, including how to make the junction with Palm Avenue safe for cyclists.

Design work is still underway, with right-of-way purchases targeted for next year and construction starting in 2016.

Design details were a big part of Thursday’s discussion.

Riverside resident Kay Ehas read a letter from City Councilman Bill Bishop, who wasn’t at the meeting, asking for changes including replacing the switchback ramp with a corkscrew-like shape similar to one already used on the Northbank Riverwalk. The letter Ehas read also asked that work to fill in retention ponds west of Riverside – something that’s part of the state’s plan already – be done early enough that the vacant area across the street from the Riverside Arts Market could be developed as the Artist Walk Extension, an inland leg of the Riverwalk the council approved last year to head toward Riverside Park.

Others echoed the idea and talked about developing alternate access to the arts market for vendors’ vehicles, so overhead construction of the shared-use path wouldn’t conflict with business at the market.

Changes were also requested to capitalize on sound barriers and lighting changes near the junction on Interstate 95 and I-10.